I wonder how they'll incorporate ads. It would be nice if they make the ads appear in the same style as the rest of the app – but also clearly marked as an ad. I'm sure the selection of the articles will also be a form of monetary promotion.

Really, how so? The article pretty much makes it clear who the content providers really are:

Quote:

“Each section includes a rich mix of content from emerging voices and well-known publications,” Facebook says. This gives the biggest clue to the real intended creators for paper: brands, be they news outlets or celebrities.

I don't need yet another channel to have services and products hawked to me.

It looks quite pleasing, and probably enjoyable to use, but the amount of wasted white space is so blatantly obvious in places. No mention of an android version is also fairly disheartening, though I imagine this project was probably started as a follow-up to Home in the hopes of diversification

Not only does Flipboard already exist, but HTC Sense UI has this built in to the home screen - Facebook Home in a sense. And if Paper is just a re-skinned Facebook with more sponsored links, what's the value to the user? This just sounds like more of what I already hate about Facebook.

I'd be content with the regular Facebook app if they'd just provide a chronological order, all items view. 'Most Recent' is clearly out of chronological order, and skips a good bit of content at random (and a computer, iPhone, and iPad will all show different posts). It's a crapshoot getting to see the stuff you'd actually like to see.

I'd be content with the regular Facebook app if they'd just provide a chronological order, all items view. 'Most Recent' is clearly out of chronological order, and skips a good bit of content at random (and a computer, iPhone, and iPad will all show different posts). It's a crapshoot getting to see the stuff you'd actually like to see.

The problem they're trying to solve is, a lot of people have hundreds of friends, potentially making a dozen "notable" actions a day. No one is going to skim through 1200 items on their news ticker - every day. So Facebook tries to sort out the ones you want to see.

They claim it is based on among other things, who you visit most and what content you view, but there's probably also some random variables.

There's a "Follow" system if you want to be sure you get all updates from a certain person.

I'd be content with the regular Facebook app if they'd just provide a chronological order, all items view. 'Most Recent' is clearly out of chronological order, and skips a good bit of content at random (and a computer, iPhone, and iPad will all show different posts). It's a crapshoot getting to see the stuff you'd actually like to see.

I think it would also be nice if you could default to Most Recent as no matter what device I use it always wants to go to the horrible News Feed. I guess I can see the value for some people who have hundreds upon hundreds of "friends" that they follow, but some of us who curate that friends list a little more carefully would love to see every post laid out in chronological order and have that set as a default. I should have to use three different device just to make sure I didn't miss any posts.

I wonder how they'll incorporate ads. It would be nice if they make the ads appear in the same style as the rest of the app – but also clearly marked as an ad. I'm sure the selection of the articles will also be a form of monetary promotion.

What I don't understand is why companies like Facebook… well, I guess that's just Facebook. But why Facebook hasn't trial-optioned a 'pay $X/year for no ads' model.

Maybe it's just pressure from the advertisers, but I feel like, as long as they didn't mangle the marketing, it would be an added revenue stream.

Then again, I don't really use Facebook - so I guess I'm not really their customer / end-user.

This seems like FB is trying to duplicate some of the features that G+/Now aims to deliver. A seamless stream of "relevant" content based on what the app thinks you like based on what you've browsed/liked previously... along with some "relevant" content not developed by your friends.

I don't think FB has enough resources to adequately integrate the content of your friends AND relevant news or original (read: FB written) content to successfully merge the "social" world and the news world. Google has attempted to do this but not enough people actively use G+ to make it work, and I don't need to read Ars articles on FB. I can go to Ars for that.

Although I don't use FB 1/20th as much as I did when I was in/just out of college. And perhaps this is their way of trying to change that (if I'm to be used as a proxy "average user").

I'd be content with the regular Facebook app if they'd just provide a chronological order, all items view. 'Most Recent' is clearly out of chronological order, and skips a good bit of content at random (and a computer, iPhone, and iPad will all show different posts). It's a crapshoot getting to see the stuff you'd actually like to see.

The problem they're trying to solve is, a lot of people have hundreds of friends, potentially making a dozen "notable" actions a day. No one is going to skim through 1200 items on their news ticker - every day. So Facebook tries to sort out the ones you want to see.

They claim it is based on among other things, who you visit most and what content you view, but there's probably also some random variables.

There's a "Follow" system if you want to be sure you get all updates from a certain person.

That's fine for "News Feed", but "Most Recent" should cut the algorithms and let me browse. It really annoys me when something I saw earlier and want to go back to somehow vanishes unless I can remember who posted it and pull them up specifically. And, let me search the posts.

That's fine for "News Feed", but "Most Recent" should cut the algorithms and let me browse. It really annoys me when something I saw earlier and want to go back to somehow vanishes unless I can remember who posted it and pull them up specifically. And, let me search the posts

It annoys me too, but I don't agree with your technical analysis. Remember that posts are written to a high-availability eventually-consistent data store. Assigning a total (or even strict weak) ordering to that fire hose would be extremely difficult, algorithmically -- much harder than applying a weight function of a few variables, which is embarrassingly parallel and sharded. In all likelihood the random behavior of "most recent" is precisely *because* they don't bother with fancy algos.

I wonder how they'll incorporate ads. It would be nice if they make the ads appear in the same style as the rest of the app – but also clearly marked as an ad. I'm sure the selection of the articles will also be a form of monetary promotion.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, but it sounds like the whole thing is an ad platform. They say that it's for "brands". Anyone with a Facebook "page" can pay money to have their posts promoted.

I won't be surprised if Facebook Paper is just a way to create an environment that encourages these "Page" owners to pay for promoting their content more often.

I wonder how they'll incorporate ads. It would be nice if they make the ads appear in the same style as the rest of the app – but also clearly marked as an ad. I'm sure the selection of the articles will also be a form of monetary promotion.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, but it sounds like the whole thing is an ad platform. They say that it's for "brands". Anyone with a Facebook "page" can pay money to have their posts promoted.

I won't be surprised if Facebook Paper is just a way to create an environment that encourages these "Page" owners to pay for promoting their content more often.

Of course it's an ad platform. That's all any of the big "free" services are.

It looks good with those cool pictures and whatnot. How about with the random crap people post on Facebook? You know, rants about politics, reposted "funny" pictures...

Yeah I was just thinking...

Facebook is the last stop for my boredom bus, so if I'm ready to read chain letters for fun it'd be pretty easy at that point to get me to explore just about anything that they offer. What should be offered is alternative content, not just the same content in a different packaging with more ads stamped on top.

Edit: Though I've noticed less self-guilt after watching a viral ad nowadays, so maybe I'll feel the same about written content too.

That's fine for "News Feed", but "Most Recent" should cut the algorithms and let me browse. It really annoys me when something I saw earlier and want to go back to somehow vanishes unless I can remember who posted it and pull them up specifically. And, let me search the posts

It annoys me too, but I don't agree with your technical analysis. Remember that posts are written to a high-availability eventually-consistent data store. Assigning a total (or even strict weak) ordering to that fire hose would be extremely difficult, algorithmically -- much harder than applying a weight function of a few variables, which is embarrassingly parallel and sharded. In all likelihood the random behavior of "most recent" is precisely *because* they don't bother with fancy algos.

How about if the client itself takes the incoming data which it loads at launch, and sorts on device by time stamp? Seems simple to me

But that's an iPad only app while this one is an iPhone only app. Plus Paper on the iPad is a drawing app while Paper from Facebook is a news app. Unless you buy app without reading its description, there's very little chance of confusing the two Paper apps.

Who in their right mind would use a Facebook browser? If they gather data from websites and users where you don´t even have a FB account imagine a browser.

Answer: Nobody. Reason why their Facebook Android approach did not worked either.

Since Facebook knows this, they try this instead, which is nothing but a browser as well. I wonder what kind of data will Facebook pull out of the websites when you browse the web and data you enter on their app.

It looks good with those cool pictures and whatnot. How about with the random crap people post on Facebook? You know, rants about politics, reposted "funny" pictures...

That's a problem with the people you're friends with on Facebook, not Facebook itself.

That's true. But if Facebook thinks that Facebook is a place where articulate people gather to share their jaw-dropping pictures and their insightful commentary, they are deluding themselves. Sure, that does happen, but there is a whole lot of garbage to go through.

That's fine for "News Feed", but "Most Recent" should cut the algorithms and let me browse. It really annoys me when something I saw earlier and want to go back to somehow vanishes unless I can remember who posted it and pull them up specifically. And, let me search the posts

It annoys me too, but I don't agree with your technical analysis. Remember that posts are written to a high-availability eventually-consistent data store. Assigning a total (or even strict weak) ordering to that fire hose would be extremely difficult, algorithmically -- much harder than applying a weight function of a few variables, which is embarrassingly parallel and sharded. In all likelihood the random behavior of "most recent" is precisely *because* they don't bother with fancy algos.

I've observed enough of it over time and read a few things here and there to recognize that much of it is related to their persistence layer. Admittedly, I have little experience with systems where "enough" content in the output is sufficient; all of my work involves situations where the data must be precise, accurate, and complete, so it is not instinctual for me to think in terms of a highly distributed system that's effectively built around non-repeatable reads.

That's fine for "News Feed", but "Most Recent" should cut the algorithms and let me browse. It really annoys me when something I saw earlier and want to go back to somehow vanishes unless I can remember who posted it and pull them up specifically. And, let me search the posts

It annoys me too, but I don't agree with your technical analysis. Remember that posts are written to a high-availability eventually-consistent data store. Assigning a total (or even strict weak) ordering to that fire hose would be extremely difficult, algorithmically -- much harder than applying a weight function of a few variables, which is embarrassingly parallel and sharded. In all likelihood the random behavior of "most recent" is precisely *because* they don't bother with fancy algos.

How about if the client itself takes the incoming data which it loads at launch, and sorts on device by time stamp? Seems simple to me

What if there are 50 posts all from 12:01:32? Also, those are written to 5 different servers on the CDN, so they might not all be available at 12:01:32, some of them are distributed at 12:01:50, after a refresh.

No idea how Facebooks system works, but the load on their servers is incredible, and the number of posts per second has to be insane, I'm actually kinda impressed it works at all. If every user has even 5 updates of some sort per day (which can be anything from a like, to a check-in or a game update), that's 5 billion updates per day, or 60.000 per second.

According to this link, there are almost 5 billion likes per day alone, and 5 billion items shared, so the actual number is certainly way higher.

I'd be interested to see how iOS users receive this app. Facebook Home absolutely bombed on the Android side, and this looks to be the same, but without the launcher (since you can't change them in iOS). I've seen a couple headlines on Google+ claim that [Facebook thinks that] Paper wouldn't work on Android. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because of the reaction to Facebook Home.

There's also the Google+ element. Since the G+ app started getting bundled with Android (I don't know when this happened, though, but I assume within the last 6-9 months, possibly with KitKat), I've seen a rise in "Facebook is for iPhone users; Google+ is for Android users" sentiment on G+. It could just be fandroids equating the subjective superiority of Google+ over Facebook to the subjective superiority of Android over iOS, and while I can see the case for the latter, both social networks have their main app and their IM app running happily on my Android smartphone. (Hell, I don't even care if an app uses the iOS design spec—not that Facebook does—as long as it's useful and doesn't crash.)

I've never liked any of these apps, though. Flipboard, Currents... I have one called Flowly that someone on Google+ made. It's alright but many of its stories are redundant (it's all Android-related news), so I'll probably drop it soon. Never learned RSS, either. Call me old fashioned, but I'm fine just calling up the news sources the old fashioned way in [mobile] Chrome. I've got Ars, Android Central, BBC News, a local station, and a couple others bookmarked. Works for me. As far as Facebook goes, it's fine the way it is.